Users of mobile devices can subscribe to services that provide the user with data under certain circumstances. For example, stock updates can be transmitted to the mobile device at periodic intervals or, especially, when the stock price meets a certain predetermined threshold.
These types of subscription services can also facilitate schedule management. A user can maintain a virtual calendar of appointments by enlisting the service to notify the user of upcoming appointments. These reminders can be scheduled at times or intervals that the user predetermines.
Typical protocols for providing such appointment reminders do nothing more than simply send the user, via the mobile device, a notification that an appointment is upcoming. Details of the appointment may be furnished within the contents of the notification, such as the time, place, and party, but the notification process is strictly passive. If the user needs to change some aspect of the appointment, it must be done off-line, namely, separately and independently from the appointment notification service.
A client application is typically installed in the mobile device to handle incoming messages from the notification service. These messages typically employ an audio-visual indication; for example, a pop-up alert message, a distinctive, sound, or a number badging the application (or some combination of these). The message, though, is typically presented alongside whatever other applications are running on the mobile device. For example, in the case of an alert message, a pop-up simply appears on the screen, overlying whatever happens to be the current content on display.
What is needed is a system and method for providing a mobile device with a functionality enabling a user to conduct user-interactive, appointment-related transactions with a server facility. The transaction will preferably involve bi-directional communications between the mobile device and server, placed within the context of the user making a reply to an appointment reminder. The user can thus take further action, and execute additional tasks, beyond the appointment reminder itself.
What is further needed is a system and method for configuring a mobile device with a functionality that provides a dedicated application environment for processing and managing incoming appointment notifications, so that presentations to the user can be made with dedicated, customized screens having selected formats.